Adobe radically improved the Camera Raw interface with the release of Camera Raw 5. Conrad Chavez discusses handy new features that populate Camera Raw 5.2 and make it worth downloading and adding to your CS4 product repertoire.

From the author of

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Shortly after releasing Adobe Photoshop CS4, and just as we were sending Real World Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers off to the presses, Adobe released Camera Raw 5.2. Unlike most Camera Raw releases, version 5.2 includes some significant enhancements that make substantial changes to the Adobe Camera Raw user interface. Camera Raw 5.2 is such a feature-rich upgrade that if you don't already have it, we recommend that you download and install it. Let's review some of the new features.

Updating to Adobe Camera Raw 5.2

As with any Camera Raw update, you can simply run the Adobe Updater utility that was installed with Photoshop (choose Help > Updates). It should download the update and install everything in the right places.

You can also install manually by downloading the Camera Raw update (note that Adobe lists it under Camera Raw, not Photoshop). The installation instructions are on the download page, so after you click Download don't close that page without reading it! After you download the update, you'll need to move the Camera Raw 5.2 plug-in to the folder described in the instructions, and run the included installer for the DNG profiles.

Camera Raw 5.2 includes the final version of the DNG profiles, so if you had installed the prerelease (beta) profiles you may want to remove them before installing the final profiles. You'll find the profiles in the following locations: